Free Press Correspondent

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During the 2010-11 season, the Riverhawks of Lowell won four Hockey East games. They finished 5-25-4 overall and racked up 21 league losses.

One year later, with a new coach and a new attitude, Lowell sent shockwaves through Hockey East with 17 victories en route to a 24-13-1 season that ended with an NCAA East Regional final loss to Union.

Because of that dramatic resurrection, the Riverhawks are ranked No. 6 nationally as their regular season begins Friday against a Vermont team plotting its own phoenix-like rise from the ashes of a 6-27-1 season through a significant shift in attitude under a veteran coach.

“Any team that has a bad year wants to respond and have a great year,” said UVM coach Kevin Sneddon this week. “We don’t look at Lowell and say we want to be exactly like them. We’re our own team. We certainly hope the results are as good if not even better, but we’re focused on what we have to do.”

Step One toward emulating the Riverhawks’ rebound season is playing well at Lowell, no easy task since the home team, led by captain Riley Wetmore of Swanton, has most of its leading players back. Wetmore led Lowell in scoring with 39 points (14 goals) and junior goalie Doug Carr anchors a stout defense.

“They’re an excellent team. They’re ranked No. 6 for a reason,” said Sneddon, whose Catamounts are 2-7-3 in their last 12 games against Lowell.

UVM captain H.T. Lenz, who has been instrumental in trying to restore Vermont’s culture of gritty, hard-nosed hockey, said, “It’s their home opener so I’m sure there’s going to be a lot more energy than even (our) returners have seen in that building when we’ve been there the last couple years. That’s what we’re going to explain with the younger guys, to keep things within ourselves and not worry about the atmosphere.

“We’re concentrating more on what we’re going to do than what to expect they’re going to do,” Lenz said. “We’ve talked a little about the way they play. They have good goalies and some pretty good forwards. They play a puck-possession game which is similar to what we’re trying to do a little bit. We feel if we play the same way (as we did against Concordia), we can have a pretty good edge.”

While Lowell beat Toronto 5-2 in an exhibition, UVM dominated Concordia, 7-1. Sneddon and Lenz said they were pleased with the performance but tempered their excitement.

“Our guys are smart enough to know they’re going to be challenged a lot more, without any disrespect to Concordia, Friday night than they were this past weekend,” Sneddon said.

“The biggest thing to take out of (Concordia) was the intensity we have but at the same time it was a controlled intensity,” Lenz said. “We were playing really hard ... we weren’t just running around trying to just play with energy, hit everyone and throw the puck around.”

After the Lowell game, UVM will have a week off before a two-game weekend at Merrimack.